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Ironically, yesterday, January 27th, marked the 43rd anniversary of another NASA tragedy. It was on Friday, January 27, 1967, that evening TV viewers heard the tragic news that there had been a fire at then Cape Kennedy’s Pad 34, and that America’s prime Apollo crew had been killed.

Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee had been training aboard Apollo Spacecraft 204 when the fire broke out. The tragedy would put America’s race to the moon on hold for 21 months.

Grissom, White, and Chaffee also had a common tie to North Carolina…each one had trained at the Morehead Planetarium on the UNC campus.

Apollo 204 would later be renamed Apollo One…it’s patch would be edged in black and forever would be known as “the patch that never flew.”

Monday, February 1, will mark the 7th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy.

Remembering 3 space tragedies within a 6 day period…and this evening the headline on MSNBC reads: “Obama’s budget ends plan to return to the moon.”